Perry Saturn just dropped one hell of a story about his life before WCW, revealing he once helped a man known as “Harry the Hat” with collections before deciding that world wasn’t for him. Saturn said he never considered himself a gangster, but admitted he got close enough to that life to call himself “gangster adjacent” — and years later, that same connection came back around while he was working for WCW.
Saturn explained during his “Shootin’ with Saturn” video that Harry handled collections and offered him a chance to make some extra money helping out. Saturn went along with it for a while, but things changed once he realized some of the people who owed money weren’t tough guys looking for trouble. They were desperate people in bad situations, and Saturn said he couldn’t stomach hurting someone who was already down.
“I’ve never been a gangster. I’ve never wanted to be a gangster. Maybe when I was a kid, immature and, you know. But a couple of times in my life I’ve been gangster adjacent. And this guy, we used to call him Harry the Hat, and he did some collections, and he presented me with an opportunity to make a little extra money and assist in some collections.”
Saturn said that experience ended once he saw the human side of what was happening. Saturn also said Harry taught him something that stuck with him for years — yelling at people usually makes a bad situation worse. Instead, Saturn learned to stay calm, keep his voice level and let that do the intimidating.
“That was something that just wasn’t for me because I found out that some of the people that owe are desperate people doing desperate things, and I just couldn’t put myself up to hurt somebody that was desperate. You know, I’ve been desperate, and I just couldn’t do that. So Harry and I went our own separate ways. He did whatever he did, and I went on with my wrestling career.”
“Professionals, they have a certain way they do things, and I learned a lot from Harry and how you interact with people. Like, I learned not to yell. And nobody’s ever going to tell you they heard me yelling at somebody because I don’t do that.”
He said screaming only causes people to stop listening and start panicking. Saturn eventually left that part of his life behind and focused on wrestling, but Harry resurfaced years later after Saturn had made it to WCW. Saturn received a call asking him to hook up one of Harry’s associates and his kids with tickets to Nitro at Nassau Coliseum. Getting tickets wasn’t a problem, but Saturn quickly realized this wasn’t just some random guy looking for good seats.
“The second you start yelling at somebody, they immediately stop listening to you and start to wonder why this idiot is yelling at them. And it creates panic, and then panic is going to lead to a bad situation. So that’s the thing I take most from Harry, is to stay at a calm level voice. And I’ve used that a million times in my life, and actually I think people find that more intimidating than the yelling, to tell you the truth.”
“He tells me that he has an associate that is in the Nassau Coliseum area, New York, and he would like to bring his kids to Nitro at the Nassau Coliseum, and asked me if I can get him tickets. And of course I can. It’s nothing for me to get tickets.”
Harry made it clear that Saturn should take extra care of the man because he was used to special treatment. Then came the line that told Saturn exactly what kind of person he was dealing with.
“He goes, ‘Perry, that will really be a personal favor. I’ll really owe you.’ And he informed me of who the person was. And he goes, ‘So, I think you can understand that he’s used to special treatment and anything you can do will go a long ways.’”
“The only thing I can tell you about the person is the business he’s in, you hear terms like RICO. So I knew exactly what Harry wanted me to do, and it would be easy for me to do. I mean, I wasn’t doing anything I shouldn’t do. Just giving some guy and his kids tickets, right?”
What Saturn thought was a simple favor for an old connection ended up opening the door to a much crazier situation during his WCW run. At that point, though, all he thought he was doing was helping a father and his kids enjoy Nitro.
What do you think about Perry Saturn opening up about his “gangster adjacent” past and how that connection followed him into WCW? Leave your feedback in the comments.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
